We love our new fence!!

And Spencer and Esther love the dirt that came with it.

Lollipop Drop

Esther, our shy, clingy daughter out in public, is always finding something to laugh about around the house.

Birthday Boy

Spencer turned 4 on the 4th!! I saw him smile a lot during the day so that had to be a good sign he was enjoying himself. We let him open his presents right after breakfast and they entertained him all day long! I was so excited the night before wrapping everything that it felt a bit like Christmas. We sure are happy to have him in our family--we love you Spencer!

Esther was eager to help open the presents, and to play with all his new loot too.

I found this shirt with the number 4 on it for him to wear on his birthday. Daniel warned me that he wouldn't be excited about getting clothes for a present, but Spencer thought the 4 was pretty cool. He told me the next day he wanted to wear the shirt again, which never happens. He usually could care less about what he's wearing.




For our Moms and Tots group we had a trip to the fire station. Spencer was just as excited to see some of his friends as he was to check out the big engines.




Inspired by the activity, I had decided to make a fire truck cake. The frosting ended up pink at first (the gel food coloring didn't make it as dark as I thought it would), so I added some yellow and ended with a orange fire truck instead. Spencer didn't mind a bit, so I stopped caring about making things perfect and just had fun with it. He had wanted to put mandarin oranges on his cake anyway (that's what we did for Esther's and he must have thought that's what all birthday cakes have) so we used them for sirens. I'm not much of a cake decorator, but Spencer has told everyone he's seen since his birthday that he had an orange fire truck cake with cookie wheels. At least he thought it was pretty cool!

The cookies were his favorite part.

I'm posting this photo for anyone who might get a kick out of the "DeVocht" look he has on his face.